VOORHEES, N.J. - Five-hundred isn’t exactly a nasty number in the Flyers’ locker room, but it’s clearly something they don’t want to set as a spoken goal.

Little wonder. Winning as many games as you lose isn’t usually a Philadelphia sports standard. Not even for teams that shoot for silver rather than those who proclaim themselves gilded in gold.

“I don’t know if there’s a lot made of the .500 level; .500 isn’t going to do anything for us,”head coach Peter Laviolette said Friday. “If we finish .500, we’re going to be looking back at this year saying, ‘What a mess.’

“We need to win hockey games and get above - way above - the .500 level if we’re going to have the opportunity to play for the Cup. So we’ll continue to chip away at things and continue to move in the right direction.”

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That would seem a more appropriate goal, even if attaining the .500 mark undeniably would be a fair place to start for the Flyers. Especially since they haven’t been there this season.

Since their season-opening loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Flyers have had six chances to level their record and have failed to do so every time. Opportunity No. 7 looms as the beaten up but running smoothly Ottawa Senators cruise into town for a high noon bash at Wells Fargo Center.

And it’s not just any little Saturday hockey matinee.

“It is a big deal,” Kimmo Timonen said of the importance of getting to the .500 mark, “because we haven’t been able to do that this year. But the bigger thing to me is our game; how we play. If we play well, we’ll get there eventually. So it’s all about us and how we play tomorrow.

“We haven’t won three games in a row yet,” Timonen pointed out. “And we’ve only won one game (in their current streak). So we’re moving the right way, but once I see we can win three or four in a row then we could really tell we’re moving the right way.”

It’s been tough for anyone to get anywhere with the Senators lately. The club that started well hit a couple of hard-luck ruts, as top offensive star Jason Spezza went out for the season with an injury, then reigning Norris Trophy defender Erik Karlsson followed suit when the Penguins’ Matt Cooke accidentally if a bit carelessly sliced his leg up with a skate.

Two devastating losses like that were expected to send the Sens into a spiral. Instead, Ottawa had won five consecutive games prior to a shootout loss Thursday night in Boston.

“They’re like Toronto; they play a really tight system,” Timonen said of the Senators. “They check you really well. Obviously, they’re missing a couple of really key players, but if you look at their last games, it’s been 2-1, 1-nothing or 3-2. ... Close games.”

“Competitive, hard-working team,” Laviolette summarized. “They always have the puck or are on the puck, which makes it difficult to play an offensive style, but they’re dangerous as well. They’re going to come pretty quick at us.”

Speaking of quick, Timonen hasn’t been that so much of late. He’s also been seen at practices with a soft boot around his right foot.

Recent word from team officials was that Timonen was likely dealing with plantar fasciitis, an inflammation of the thick skin at the bottom of the foot, and that the condition didn’t affect him while skating. But some observers think Timonen’s skating speed isn’t what it was at the beginning of the season.

When asked about his plantar fasciitis condition Friday, Timonen said, “That’s not the reason. I can’t tell you what it is, but that’s not right.”

Timonen didn’t offer a clue as to what was the correct answer might be to the question of what may be slowing him up.”

Tom Sestito is no longer a Flyer. The enforcer who stunned everyone - including himself - by scoring two goals in a victory over the Lightning not long ago was picked up off waivers by the Vancouver Canucks Friday.

“It was good to get two goals here,” Sestito said. “I left here with something. I (previously) left Columbus with two, I left here with two and hopefully with Vancouver I’ll leave with a lot more.

“I couldn’t say I didn’t expect to be on waivers, because I wasn’t playing much. (Paul Holmgren) had to do things. It’s a business. He said he didn’t want to lose me but he wanted to get me playing again (with the Phantoms). So sometimes you have to take that chance.”

The other player Holmgren was trying to demote through waivers, goalie Michael Leighton, passed through without a problem and he has been demoted to the Phantoms. Consider Leighton to have been overtaken again by Brian Boucher in a Philadelphia goaltending dance that in their case dates to 2009 or so.

NOTES: Erik Gustafsson has shaken off the groin pain he incurred Wednesday night and practiced in full Friday, then proclaimed himself ready to play.

“I felt good out there,” Gustafsson said. “I had a little concern at the start of the practice, but then it felt good. As I warmed up it go better and it wasn’t a problem at all. So I’ll be ready.”

“He’s playing really well for us,” Laviolette said of Gustafsson. “He’s moving the puck and moving himself. He’s mobile back there. It seemed like he was really finding his game (lately) so it’s good to see him back out there and not hung up from the other night.”

Of course, what that likely means is Gustafsson would be starting ahead of Kurtis Foster again, who has looked OK in games but has been a healthy scratch seven straight times. ... Matt Read was back out on the ice and practicing hard, despite complaining of pain from the muscle tears that are supposed to be keeping him out another five weeks or so.